


waiting games

by sparkycap



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Childhood Friends, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Like really vaguely implied but, M/M, POV Thanatos (Hades Video Game), Running Away, which was really hard for me so this is uh... questionable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28459413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkycap/pseuds/sparkycap
Summary: In which Zagreus keeps running away from home and Thanatos keeps bailing him out - but only once literally, which is a win.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 155





	waiting games

**Author's Note:**

> my obligatory "how many canon details and dialogue can I au-ify in ways that make me feel clever and how many detailed outfit descriptions can I include while I do it" fic
> 
> like my writerly MO is always to use characters as my personal dress-up dolls because fashion is my passion or w/e but truly these guys... these dudes... I feel so blessed with how much their character designs gave me to work with, nothing is too extra for them. I could write three more fics on Zag's hair alone. my happy place is that boy in an off-the-shoulder red sweatshirt and it's canon that he'd kill the look
> 
> anyway there's also some plot here I guess, carry on

The first time Thanatos brings Zagreus home, he catches up with him in Grand Central Terminal.

He’s seventeen, and he’s upset, so Thanatos knows he’ll find him in the Shake Shack downstairs with far too much food. His father likes to pretend he’s not paying any attention at all to his son, and in large part that may be true, but he pays enough attention to have placed a hold on his son’s credit card for any kind of transportation-related purchase in the last two years; Zag tries to buy a plane ticket, a train ticket, even a car, and Hades gets a call.

Zagreus is holding court at a corner table. He’s meant to be in disguise, it seems, so his usual spiky hair is stuffed under a red knit hat, his distinctive heterochromia hidden by designer sunglasses. The sleeves of his black sweater are pulled down to hide the solid gold cuffs ever-present on his left wrist, but the light catches the very edge of one when he waves a crinkle fry through the air to punctuate a point.

The young woman sitting across from him with a baby in her lap nods sympathetically.

Thanatos hasn’t always been the best at identifying emotions, but he doesn’t have any trouble with the cold burning rage located somewhere in his chest. From a distance, it’s easy enough to manage. He calmly pulls out his phone, pulls up the group text with his family that Hypnos keeps adding him to, and sends a simple _I’ve got him_.

He tucks his phone back into his coat pocket, pulls his scarf up to his chin, and winds his way through the cluttered seating to Zagreus’s table. “This was a poor attempt, even for you.”

Zagreus jumps to his feet, startling the woman sitting across from him, but not Thanatos. It was more of a surprise to see him sitting at all. “Thanatos. I suppose Father sent you to drag me home?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Thanatos says. “Your father sent Megaera to drag you home. I happened to get here first.”

The color drains out of Zag’s face. Megaera is committed to making her internship with Hades into a career, and not at all inclined to sympathy toward Zagreus after their recent break-up. He swallows. “In that case, thank you for coming.”

Thanatos cannot calmly acknowledge that, so he turns to the unfamiliar woman. “I don’t know what he told you, but he is underage.”

“Than, don’t be rude,” Zagreus protests. “We’re just chatting. She needed to eat too and was kind enough to keep me company.”

With another glance at the woman, Thanatos properly notices her seasonally-inappropriate jacket and her baby’s lack of shoes. It does not inspire much remorse, given the circumstances. Older women tend to flock to Zagreus; Hypnos says it’s because of something called mommy issues, but Thanatos doesn’t listen to Hypnos. He focuses. “Time’s up, Zag.”

“Can’t we stay a little longer?” Zagreus says with a sigh. “I got you a milkshake.”

Thanatos looks down at the sticky tabletop in surprise. There’s a black-and-white milkshake beside Zagreus’s half-finished cookies and cream. Zagreus still has a teenage boy’s metabolism, but Thanatos couldn’t drink that without the sugar content dragging him down all day. Without thinking, he says, “I don’t want that.”

“Right.” Zagreus looks briefly like a kicked puppy before, like always, he rallies. He stoops to pull the thick wad of cash that he calls pocket money out of the side pocket of his bag, then moves around the table. Thanatos takes up his bag while he discreetly passes the money to the young woman, pitching his voice low as he tells her, “Please, take it. I don’t need it where I’m going, believe me.”

He makes it sound like he’s dying, or going to prison. Thanatos supposes that for him, that must be what it feels like. When a house is not a home, and all that—never mind all the people he claims as family that he’d be leaving behind.

* * *

The problem with Zagreus is that he doesn’t know anything about the real world. He’s never left his hometown, which his father owns in every way that matters. He grew up an only child in a cold mansion filled with servants and thinks he knows how to handle people just because he managed to charm them into loving him the way his father never could.

No, Thanatos corrects himself, the problem with Zagreus is that he doesn’t know anything about the real world, but he thinks he does.

That’s why he thinks he can simply steal his father’s BMW and take it out of state without getting arrested and needing Thanatos to come bail him out of jail.

The officer at the desk very clearly has trouble deciding what to make of Thanatos. He knows he presents a difficult first impression—there’s the purely white hair and the impeccable black nail polish, but there’s also the sinfully expensive charcoal suit and neat purple tie, both contradicting each other in the eyes of some. He’s also been told his eyes, more gold than gray, can be unnerving, though he has nothing on Zagreus in that regard. He waits patiently.

As far as he’s concerned, the fact that Zagreus pulled over when bid instead of starting a car chase that ended with him and his father’s car wrapped around a tree is enough of a win for tonight. Anything else will be a bonus.

“Than!” Zagreus has clearly been pacing the perimeter of his cell, but now he comes to a stop with his hands on the bars. “I was just thinking about you.”

“Probably because I have your bail money, Zagreus.” Thanatos looks over him somewhat despairingly. Zagreus is two weeks away from turning eighteen, but he still looks so young sometimes. Maybe it’s the ripped black skinny jeans, or the cluster of shiny red barrettes haphazardly holding his hair out of his face. A safety precaution he has to take while driving, Zagreus told him once. Probably for the best, because Zag isn’t a very good driver in the first place and could always use more safety precautions.

“Am I getting out of here, then?” Zagreus plucks at the bars like they’re the strings of the unused harp sitting in his room, able to be pulled wide enough for him to slip through.

“That is what I’m here for.” Thanatos steps aside as an officer comes in with the keys. “What was the plan this time?”

Zagreus comes out of the cell gesturing grandly. “Listen, it’s my car. He insists I drive it myself, and yet when I decide to take it out on a little trip—”

“It’s in your father’s name,” Thanatos says. “And you’re still a minor. You can’t just leave home whenever you want. If you’d just waited two weeks…”

“Well, then I would have been tried as an adult,” Zagreus whispers to him as they’re led back to the desk, his smile small and playful. Thanatos gives him a quelling look.

He is, as ever, undeterred.

* * *

Unexpectedly, Zagreus lasts a full two years in college before he even starts talking about dropping out. He’s even responsibly limited his attempts to run away and find his mother to semester breaks or weekends when he doesn’t have homework.

But at some point, as they knew it would, even the allure of a big campus and the false promise of _finding yourself_ stops soothing Zag’s restless soul, and that’s that.

When he finally tells his father that he hasn’t been able to find a suitable major and therefore will not be continuing his studies, it causes a fight that can be heard from every corner of the house. Which, given the square footage, is truly impressive.

“What is he thinking,” Thanatos says to himself, unable to focus on his work when Zag’s latest remark, too quiet to be heard, results in a roar of insults that makes even Hypnos startle awake on the couch.

“Child,” his mother says serenely, “Zagreus will have to find his own path. I think we have all known it would not be a conventional one.”

Since that’s similar to what she said about Hypnos when he decided to skip college and become a cuddle therapist, it’s not as reassuring as wisdom from his mother usually is.

Later, there’s a brief knock on Thanatos’s open door before Zag strides into his bedroom, dropping his leather suitcase by the wall and making for the armchair in the corner. Just before he reaches it, he abruptly veers away and toward the opposite wall. Thanatos places a bookmark in his novel, though he expects Zagreus to complete that loop at least a few more times before he begins speaking.

“You’re leaving again,” Thanatos says, once he gets tired of waiting.

“Not exactly my choice this time, though I won’t be shedding any tears over it,” Zagreus says. It’s hard to tell with his hair even messier than usual, shadowing his eyes, but Thanatos thinks that perhaps he already has. He likes to pretend his father’s treatment of him rolls right off his back, and truly a good deal of it does, but not all. And it might not be a hardship for him to say goodbye to Hades, but there are others here—he’ll be a wreck over Cerberus alone. He musters up a smile. “I thought I should say goodbye, since you got so upset when I didn’t the first time.”

Thanatos shuts his book with a snap. “Upset is an overstatement.”

“Aw, Than, don’t tell me you won’t miss me.” There’s something in Zag’s voice that sounds a touch too earnest when he says, “That might be just the last straw tonight.”

“Fine, I won’t tell you,” Thanatos says, which makes Zagreus sink into the chair, even if he springs right back up a moment later. “Where will you go?”

Zagreus shrugs. “I could go to one of my uncles, if I wanted to make Father really lose it. Most of my cousins would take me at least for a night or two. There’s Aphrodite—”

“No,” Thanatos says firmly.

“I’m twenty now, you can’t hold it against her anymore,” Zagreus says, amused.

Thanatos swings his legs over the edge of the bed. “If you need somewhere safe to stay—”

“Relax, Than,” he says, his voice softer. “Achilles has a guest room. Apparently Patroclus says ‘the lad who saved their marriage can stay as long as he likes,’ but Achilles is sure Father will cool off in a week or two.”

“True. I don’t think he’s spent all this time trying to keep you here just to let you go now.”

“A very depressing thought, when you put it that way!” Zagreus comes to a stop in the middle of the room, hands in the pockets of his sweatpants. He’s not dressed for an escape attempt, his signature jewelry—two gold cuff bracelets with intricate latches and a necklace strung with three silver dog skulls—on full display. He’s not even dressed for the weather outside, in a dark red tank top and bare feet. Then again, Zagreus has always run hot.

“There are worse things,” Thanatos says finally.

Zagreus holds up a hand. “That reminds me, I’ve got something for you.”

“ _That_ reminds you?”

“You might hate it,” Zag says cheerfully. “But after you gave me that butterfly—”

“Which I only did in return for your little souvenir from your last trip out of the city.” It feels important, for some reason, to point that out. Zagreus had gotten far enough upstate to bring home gifts from a legitimate farmer’s stand. The cherries he’d picked especially for Thanatos were the best he’s ever tasted.

Zag waves him off. “Not the point. This is even better. I know you don’t care much for Dionysus, but you can’t fault his taste for wine, so I asked him to pick me a bottle, and, well.”

Thanatos stares at the sleek bottle placed on his desk. He used to abstain from alcohol, but that tends to make people uncomfortable, so he’d chosen wine as his drink with little care and developed something of a taste for it. Zagreus, accustomed as he is to the finer things in life, only drinks in the form of punches that will turn his tongue some absurd color.

“You have the butterfly pin?” he asks abruptly. “You’re taking it?”

“Of course,” Zagreus says. “On my jacket. It’s my good luck charm, you know. I can practically feel it charging up every time I made a good decision.”

“That was the idea.” Thanatos finally stands. “Well. Goodbye, Zagreus.”

“It’s just, you’ll have to forgive me for doubting you, but all the fuss you made when I left three years ago—don’t say you didn’t fuss, because it took me ages to get you to stay in the same room with me for longer than sixty seconds, after that—I just have to wonder whether you do know that phones exist.” Zagreus fidgets in place, which brings him closer to Thanatos. “That not living in the same house… doesn’t have to mean goodbye.”

“Of course I do. You’ve sent me seven pictures of Cerberus in the last twelve hours alone.” Cerberus is really three dogs, named by a young Zagreus who had explained somewhat vaguely that they’re brothers and probably go by their surname. Truthfully, Thanatos cannot tell even one of them apart, so this works in his favor.

“You haven’t answered any of them,” Zag points out.

“I was… not aware they required a response.” Truthful.

“Yes, well… I require a response.” Zagreus stares at him as if the words mean more than the obvious, that being Zag’s well-documented need for attention and validation. “Not right now, I just want to make sure you know… I’m waiting. As long as it takes.”

* * *

No one would give Zagreus a normal job based on his nonexistent resume, but because he’s Zagreus, he’s booked up on work in the next month. He’s raked every lawn in the neighborhood completely leaf-free, babysat most of the children, grocery shopped for the elderly—the list goes on.

Even Hades has to admit, it’s good life experience for his sheltered son. Zag is learning new things, things he cares about much more than anything he found in a college course. He even had Thanatos drive him to the library last week so he could get a book on gardening, read up on it now so he could try his hand at it in the spring.

Thanatos likes the idea for him. Gardening means putting down roots.

Never mind that Zag’s eclectic collection of jobs is all in service of saving up his own money to leave.

Late morning, after everyone has left for work or started their day, finds Thanatos walking down the block in the pleasant autumn chill to meet Zagreus and the veritable pack of dogs he walks. Ostensibly, he’s there to help, but Zagreus handles them all with remarkable ease. It’s not dominance or discipline, it’s just that the beasts seem to _want_ to listen to him.

Today isn’t one of the days that Thanatos goes into the office, so he’s foregone the suit, but he’s still dressed in a perfectly respectable hooded cardigan and pressed slacks. Of course, his overall appearance isn’t something everyone would call respectable—some would disqualify him on the dyed white hair alone, others on the layered angel wing necklace, a few on the collection of silver rings set with green, purple, and blue gemstones on both hands but, if not those, definitely the nail polish he tends to favor in clear coats or dark hues.

Perhaps not respectable, then, but _presentable_. That’s the point.

Zagreus, on the other hand.

His friend might have just rolled out of bed. He’s got the hair for it, though the mess is held back by a golden leaf-themed headband. His red sweatshirt is undoubtedly fine quality, the color rich and the material smooth, but it’s slipping off one shoulder and showing perhaps more of his chest than can be called decent. Finally, of all the contradictions, he’s wearing gray legwarmers over his running tights… and athletic sandals.

Thanatos reaches him and takes his customary single dog leash, more of a gesture than anything. “You look like you didn’t sleep last night.”

“I didn’t,” Zagreus says, his voice low and worn. Unfamiliar. Zagreus not sleeping is a frighteningly common occurrence, and therefore not one that usually weighs him down.

Thanatos moves closer with a frown. Zag’s hands are otherwise occupied, so he switches the oblivious dog’s leash to his other side and sets his free hand on his back. “Zag?”

“I just couldn’t… settle. I had this awful thought… you’ll probably think I’m simply looking for trouble.”

“The usual, then,” Thanatos says. He settles his hand more firmly between Zag’s shoulder blades, as if he can help support him this way, keep him moving the way he so desperately needs to. “Tell me.”

Unsurprisingly, Zagreus says, “My mother. All my life, my father told she was dead, and it was only… fairly recently, really, that Mother Nyx… I had the thought that she might have been mistaken, when she told me it wasn’t the truth.”

“You think your mother might be dead after all?” Thanatos asks.

“What if the reason Nyx doesn’t know she is… what if Father…”

“Oh, Zagreus,” Thanatos says, doubt flooding his tone despite himself.

“Why else would he be so dead-set against me looking for her? For answers?” Zagreus says despondently. It’s wrong, hearing him like that.

“Believe it or not, I get the feeling he might be trying to prevent you from getting hurt.” One kind of hurt, anyway, since Hades is perfectly capable of providing another kind himself.

Zagreus scoffs. “I find it much easier to believe that he might be a murderer.”

“I understand,” Thanatos says. “Though… from what Mother has told me, of Persephone… he did truly love her.”

“Makes one of us.” Zagreus glances over, meeting his eyes for what feels like the first time their whole walk. They’ve been keeping pace with each other, but in that moment, Zagreus stops quivering like a strung bow and finally seems to fall into step with him. “Ah, well. Just a theory.”

* * *

Eventually, Zagreus saves up enough for a bus ticket, a rental car, several weeks in a motel around the upstate area he expects to find his mother, and inevitable damage fees for the rental car. It’s different this time, and they all know it.

He stops by the house when Hades is out. Thanatos is waiting in his old bedroom, listening to him make the rounds. Saying goodbye. To Chef, to the housekeeper Dusa, to Hypnos on his customary napping couch in the small living room off the foyer, to Mother Nyx. He spends the longest time in the backyard with the dogs, but eventually he makes his way to Thanatos.

Eventually, he always does.

“Oh, good, you’re already here,” he says. “I was worried you’d be… well. It’s really good to see you.”

Thanatos thinks he really needs to get over their minor, incomplete falling out all those years ago. Things are different now. Unlike the train ticket Zagreus had tried to buy when he was seventeen, his bus ticket is round-trip.

“I figured you’d have some last things to pack from here,” Thanatos says. The room is still a mess, even though it’s been months since Zagreus lived in it. Dusa has taken great pride in leaving it exactly the way he did—for when he comes back.

“I do,” Zagreus says, setting his bag down and unzipping it. His smile turns playful. “So, go ahead, get in the suitcase.”

“I’d come if you asked,” Thanatos says. “But I think we both know this is something you have to do yourself.”

“Right. Yes. You’re right. But I… hope you won’t mind if I say that I’ll… that is, while I’m gone…”

“Zagreus.”

He shuts his mouth. Thanatos glides closer. Words of this sort have never been his strong suit, but Zagreus still hasn’t quite learned to read his silences. For all Zag’s extravagances and romantic tendencies, Thanatos has figured out he’ll have to meet him halfway.

“Zagreus, what you have to understand… you were never the one waiting. Ever since the first time you left…” Thanatos shakes his head. He raises a hand to touch the butterfly pinned to Zag’s collar, the backs of his fingers brushing his throat. Zag swallows hard, eyes flicking up to meet his. Thanatos can feel his pulse jump.

“That’s when I started to realize too,” Zagreus says. “You were so mad at me for leaving and I was so mad at you for not understanding, it frustrated me to no end, until I saw we were mad about the same thing, really.”

“And your solution to that was cherries… and wine… and pictures of your dog,” Thanatos says. “Truly, Zag, it’s a wonder you’ve remained single all these years since Megaera.”

“Dogs, plural,” Zagreus says. “Perhaps the fact that I talk through all my problems with them has something to do with my relationship status.”

“Perhaps,” Thanatos agrees, almost smiling.

Zag takes a deep breath, tension draining out of his perpetually-taut shoulders. He hooks his fingers in Than’s pockets and pulls him closer, looking up at him steadily this time. “So when I get back from meeting my mother… or maybe if I need a little help along the way…”

“I’ll be waiting.”


End file.
